A Research Towards Social Media Uses of Undergraduate Tourism Students: The Case of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University

Abstract

Communication has a key position for people to be able to negotiate with each other and to make things work accurately and properly. Recently, with the development of the technology, inter-individual communication can be provided mostly through social media tools. Through social media channels, individuals can share information with certain tools among themselves. It is seen that especially young people who are mentioned as Y and Z generations have a very close relationship with social media. In this study, it is aim to determine the social media usage purposes and praxizes of the tourism students who are at the undergraduate level. The study is a qualitative research. In this study, questionnaire forms were used as data collection tools. The sample of the study consisted of the students of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Tourism Faculty. As a result of the analysis of the obtained data, it was determined that the social media usage purposes and prazies of social media of undergraduate tourism students consist of five dimensions. These dimensions are called entertainment, information, benefit, socialization and virtualization, respectively. In the meantime, it was determined that social media usage purposes and praxizes of undergraduate tourism students differ according to their various features. It was also determined that the dimensions of entertainment and knowledge were effective in benefiting from social media.